Moisturizing mats, or capillary bench-mattings, are beginning to gain wide acceptance for horticultural uses. Such mats are used in the following manner:
Many young plants or seedlings are nurtured in synthetic soil that has only a limited water-holding capacity. Flooding of the roots of the young plants is thereby avoided. Such plants are placed in containers that have holes in the bottoms, and the containers are placed on top of the moisturizing mat. Water is continually trickled onto the mat, and is wicked from the mat up into the containers containing the plants.
The February 1978 issue of "Nonwovens Industry" on page 16, discloses one such moisturizing mat that is made of needlepunched nylon backed with a woven polypropylene web. This is typical of the moisturizing mats currently employed commercially. Such mats are usually employed in combination with a separate plastic film to prevent leakage.
The moisturizing mats used heretofore have usually been made from synthetic fibers. A major reason for this is that synthetic fibers are less susceptible to attack from microorganisms than are cellulosic or other natural fibers. However, cellulosic fibers have several advantageous properties that would be desirable in this end-use application. First, they are generally less expensive than synthetic fibers, and, second, they inherently have excellent water carrying capacity.